Despite Kobe Bryant being the very player that gave Isaiah Thomas his ‘welcome to the NBA’ moment, the former Celtics star admitted he owes a lot of his career success to Kobe.
“Every night, I knew I was getting 30 [points],” Thomas said, via Players Tribune. “I knew it cuz I just figured it out. I figured the game out inside and out. I watched film every day. I prepared on some Kobe s**t. Like I really did. And he was able to mentor me and really mold me all year. I used to call Kobe at night. We used to watch film, he used to really take his time and watch film with me. My skills were always there, but my mental took it to a different level.”
On a seperate podcast, Thomas recently reflected on how difficult the situation was when he suffered a career-altering injury with Boston.
“I’m upset because I put my career on the line for something you could’ve just broke down to me and told me…,” Thomas said on Knuckleheads podcast. “It took me three years to get back to who I am and really figure out what was going on, but it was a tough situation. It was a learning experience for myself. I got real love for Boston and everybody in that organization. It was definitely the wrong way to go about things. I’m not blaming Boston, I’m not blaming those guys. People know what happened, it’s documented. It was just a messed up situation and it happened to be with me.
“…It sucks because so much was on the line, if I had gotten All-NBA that following year, I’m a super max guy, like I was eligible for the super max. All of that is in play, when you look at it like that, that sh*t sucks. But at the end of the day you live and you learn, you make mistakes, you make decisions. I’ve got no hard feelings. At that point it hurt, because I put my career on the line and then you trade me too.”
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